Type | , futures exchange, clearing house |
---|---|
Location | Sydney, Australia |
Founded | 1987 |
Owner | ASX Limited |
Currency | Australian dollar |
No. of listings | 2,192 (November 2016) |
Market cap | A$1.663 trillion (October 2016) |
Website | www |
Australian Securities Exchange Ltd, or ASX Limited (ASX), is an Australian public company (ASX: ASX) that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as the Sydney Stock Exchange). It was formed on 1 April 1987, through incorporation under legislation of the Australian Parliament as an amalgamation of the six state securities exchanges, and merged with the Sydney Futures Exchange in 2006.
Today, ASX has an average daily turnover of A$4.685 billion and a market capitalisation of around A$1.6 trillion, making it one of the listed exchange groups.
ASX Group is a market operator, clearing house and payments system facilitator. It also oversees compliance with its operating rules, promotes standards of corporate governance among Australia's listed companies and helps to educate retail investors.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has responsibility for the supervision of real-time trading on Australia's domestic licensed financial markets and the supervision of the conduct by participants (including the relationship between participants and their clients) on those markets. ASIC also supervises ASX's own compliance as a public company with ASX Listing Rules.
ASX Compliance is an ASX subsidiary company that is responsible for monitoring and enforcing ASX-listed companies' compliance with the ASX operating rules.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has oversight of the ASX's clearing and settlement facilities for financial system stability.
Products and services available for trading on ASX include shares, futures, exchange traded options, warrants, contracts for difference, exchange-traded funds, real estate investment trusts, listed investment companies and interest rate securities.
The biggest stocks traded on the ASX, in terms of market capitalisation, include BHP Billiton, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac, Telstra, Rio Tinto, National Australia Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group.